Will I need to clean out dust. How would I do this? How often would I need to do this? Are there any good tutorials on how this would be done?
I would think that this is the actual intake and it looks like that because you use the laptop in a place with a lot of dust.
That is indeed the case :) Imho this is superior to bottom intakes, because with those your laptop will basically vacuum up any dust that is already on the table/bed/surface you put it on.
So basically you just wipe it off from time to time. After a few years of use you can also consider opening it up, disconnecting the battery, holding the fan blades in place to prevent them from spinning and then use a vacuum or pressured air to remove any internal buildup.
EDIT: looks like it might be a top AND bottom intake actually. If there are slits on the bottom of the laptop then it is.